AN's response to the Industry's "problem"?

[Dan]

What is often discussed as a major dip in the profitability of the anime industry, I think its well understood by most people intrested in the subject that the cause of this "problem" is twofold - poor investment decisions leading to market saturation and unwanted lisencing, and the consumer conditioning to bargain hunt and put off their purchases.

Although I didnt run through that as eloquently as I could, I think we all know what I'm referring to.

What I am interested in however is, given John's unique position as an AN employee and one of the community that appreciates and follows the industry, what do you think of AN's practices regarding these issues? And this is also twofold - as a liscensor and a retailer. AN's own titles are offered at absurdly low prices, and the retailer is constantly promoting huge sales - even now, the second ADV sale in less than a month is underway.

Is this a tactic to stay ahead, or to just stay afloat? Does this course of action promote a viable future tactic - where does end? In another 6 months will AN just knock off another $5 from Miami Guns?

Now that retailers have gotten themselves into this hole where consumers feel justified to not pay full price for anything, what can the industry do to combat this?

I understand these ask for highly speculative answers (and no one can tell the future), and I can appreciate if you cannot answer out of whatever reason tied to being an AN employee, but I hope we can discuss these issues (hopefully from a first hand perspective coming from AN) to shed some light on the industry and its future.

[Bradster]

And this is also twofold - as a liscensor and a retailer. AN's own titles are offered at absurdly low prices,
It does seem strange that you can read about "Critically praised" on one side of the site, but then see them going for almost fire-sale prices a handful of months after they're out.

But hey... I can (and just did) give Miami Guns another shot (my opinion of DVD 1 was 'poor attempt to cross Y.U.A. and Excel Saga', and I didn't watch any more) at only $25 for the whole series if they're selling at that price point for now.

Hasn't John addressed this several times, both on the forum and in a few of his columns?

[Dan]

Hasn't John addressed this several times, both on the forum and in a few of his columns?

As far as I know, he's addressed the OVERALL issue, but Im interested in AN's stance and opinion (which they may have to leave with "No comment", but still).

If he HAS responded to it specifically to AN, sorry for bringing it up again, and I'd appreciate if someone could link me to it.


ps. what's your avatar? Ive wondered what that face is for a while.

[Bradster]

As far as I know, he's addressed the OVERALL issue, but Im interested in AN's stance and opinion (which they may have to leave with "No comment", but still).

If he HAS responded to it specifically to AN, sorry for bringing it up again, and I'd appreciate if someone could link me to it.


ps. what's your avatar? Ive wondered what that face is for a while.

* I'll have to leave a definitive answer to the original object of your question, but I suspect it's a matter of twig caught in a current. If they stop the 40% sales, customers can go to competitor or distributor who still does them.

* Forgotten his name now, but he's the main villain from Eden 3, an ero game which is essentially a FMV story interspersed with a handful of directional choices. He's somehow connected to/possessed by a tentacle monster, and well...you know the rest.

[John]

I hate to admit it because I firmly believe in the quality of AN Entertainment's catalog, but AN Entertainment now sells Risky Safety and Miami Guns at very low prices they're now at the price point at which they'll sell. We have yet to make any significant profit from either title. Due to poor support from our previous distributor, whom we no longer distribute through, our catalog titles never got strong distribution support. Due to the way the industry works, re-releasing them through a new distributor isn't a financially viable option. So our choices are to either bury our remaining inventory in a hole out back, or sell them cheap. And now that they're cheap, they are selling better than they ever have before. We're glad to see that because they're selling, and because these great shows are now reaching more viewers. I'm disappointed that Risky Safety and Miami Guns are now about $7 a disc because I think they're worth much more than that. And I doubt they'll get cheaper because they're already virtually sold at cost. But I am glad that people are buying and watching our shows. Unlike companies that heavily discount their titles in order to earn more profit from titles, we're discounting our catalog because that's regrettably the only way we can convince consumers to buy them.

AnimeNation is a business that has to react to market conditions in order to survive. If we could remain profitable by selling only a full retail price, we would. However, our customer service and fan community activity like this forum are not enough to generate sustainable revenue. So AnimeNation has to compete in the market by offering discounts and incentive sales. We're aware that discounting DVDs contributes to consumer hesitency to buy new release titles, but we have no other choice. We do what we have to do in order to stay in business.

[ZeroRyoko1974]

Risky Safety for 7 dollars a disc.....hmmm might have to finish that series, only disc I have was the free one I got at AN panel at last years Otakon >_> Didn't like Miami Guns in the least, but I will have to pick up the rest of Risky

[ransom]

The industry is starting to wake up to the fact that rapid discounting has undermined their major profit earners (first release DVD volumes). Some are startign to react to this:

- ADV has committed for future releases to have a time delay (1-2 years?) between initial DVD release and DVD boxset/thinkpack (budget releases). Also the budget releases will be no-frills anime only without extras.
- Geneon tend to nowadays release boxsets for their short run series that are roughly the same price as the sum of the individual volumes
- I haven't noticed any super-budget FMA collections yet .... or any super budget FUNi boxsets in a while

Can't recall what the others are doing (seems to be business as usual at bandai), but the volume of discounted releases means that fans that can be satisfied without the very latest, can enjoy an awful lot of anime and make $ stretch very far. As an importer (resident in Ireland) I take advantage of this a lot.

The industry is slowly weaning customers off of massively discounted releases. They need to restore consumer faith in the initial releases. After a while all of those budget boxes will thin out - those fans will have exhausted themselves of all the cheap anime, and the boxes will disappear due to licenses expiring etc.

Hopefully by then, japanese companies might have noticed that some of their premium titles aren't being picked up for licenses any more, and bring their rates in line with what those titles are worth.